British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government will press ahead on Monday with legislation to scrap rules on post-Brexit trade with Northern Ireland, setting up further clashes with the European Union, Reuters reported. The legislation, which would unilaterally replace parts of the post-Brexit deal that was agreed in 2020 by Britain and the EU, is due to be sent back to parliament's lower house for a so-called second reading.
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The UK’s largest woollen yarn spinner, Lawton Yarns Limited, has returned to private ownership after securing a £13.4m facility from Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance, the Yorkshire Post reported. The facility funded the management buyout and will provide additional working capital and growth support to the business. Headquartered in Ravensthorpe, West Yorkshire, Lawton Yarns supplies woollen yarn to all major carpeting manufacturers in the UK and exports to Europe, Asia, and America. The facility represents a secondary buy out to return the business to private ownership.
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Britain’s inflation rate hit a new 40-year high of 9.1% in the 12 months to May, figures showed Wednesday, as Russia’s war in Ukraine drove food and fuel prices ever higher, the Associated Press reported. The Office for National Statistics said consumer price inflation rose slightly from 9% in April, itself the highest level since 1982.
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Katie Price has seemingly swerved bankruptcy proceedings for a third time this year, with her court case reportedly being moved to February 2023, the Daily Mirror reported. The 43-year-old former glamour model was due to face a judge over the £3.2million bankruptcy debts she has but the hearing, which was reportedly meant to have taken place at London’s Royal Courts of Justice on June 7, has now been pushed back into next year.
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Britain's payment systems regulator (PSR) will conduct two market reviews of card fees charged by Visa and Mastercard, the U.S. companies that account for 99% of debit and credit card payments in the UK, Reuters reported. The PSR's announcement yesterday follows heavy pressure from lawmakers to launch full market reviews to tackle card fees paid by retailers, which are typically passed on to consumers. "We want to understand whether card payments are working well and to make sure that merchants, and ultimately consumers, get a good deal," said Natalie Timan, the PSR's head of strategy.
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The British government presented legislation Monday that would allow it to tear up parts of its Brexit agreement with the European Union, stoking fears of a trade war and drawing condemnation from the trade bloc, the Wall Street Journal reported. U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that the legislation put before Parliament enables the government to unilaterally alter the terms of a 2019 deal with its European counterparts that placed a customs border within the U.K., between Britain and Northern Ireland.
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The UK's Financial Conduct Authority has put Credit Suisse on a watchlist of institutions in need of stricter supervision, the Financial Times reported late on Sunday, citing a letter sent in May, Reuters reported. The regulator told the Swiss bank last month the step had been taken because of concern the bank had not made enough improvements to its culture, governance and risk controls, the report said.
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Britain's economy faces stagnation next year and could easily fall into recession, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) warned on Monday after it slashed its outlook for growth due to surging inflation, Reuters reported. The CBI is the third major body to cut its growth forecasts for Britain in the past week, following a downgrade from the British Chambers of Commerce and a warning from the OECD that Britain had the weakest outlook of any major economy bar Russia. "Let me be clear – we're expecting the economy to be pretty much stagnant. It won't take much to tip us into a recession.
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Credit Suisse Group AG won the green light to pursue its court battle against companies controlled by Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, in a dispute over more than a billion dollars in debts to the bank, Bloomberg News reported. A London judge said that the Swiss lender’s attempt to wind up three of Gupta’s firms can proceed, saying the GFG companies couldn’t rely on rules designed to protect companies during the coronavirus pandemic. “The demands made on the companies over a year ago have not been met,” Judge Nicholas Briggs said in his ruling.
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The Financial Reporting Council fined PricewaterhouseCoopers on Tuesday after the U.K. audit and accounting regulator found issues with the firm’s audits of two construction groups, the Wall Street Journal reported. The FRC said it imposed sanctions of roughly £5 million—equivalent to about $6.3 million—for failings in PwC’s audits of Galliford Try Holdings PLC and Kier Group PLC, which have market caps of around £191 million and £345 million, respectively. PwC in a statement expressed regret that certain audits weren’t up to standards and said it has worked to improve audit quality.
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